It is a framework of dozens of trenchesalmost a maze. they look like barricades freshly dug, and no one would say that they actually date from World War II. The position, yes, is unbeatable: on top of a hill, very easy to defend, and capable of detecting any movement in the surrounding plain, flooded since the beginning of the war by the Ukrainian side when, to stop the advance of the Russian forces on kyivthe defending army destroyed a dam on the Irpin river, already known as the “hero river” among many locals. Despite the fact that the bulk of the military activity in recent weeks is concentrating on the donbas regionhundreds of kilometers to the east, the local military commanders they do not trust that the Kremlin will not try again the assault on the capitaland have installed multiple permanent surveillance posts in the surroundings of the great metropolis to prevent a new incursion from the north.
“With Russia you never know; a year ago, nobody thought that (Vladimir) Putin would finally decide to attack and in the end he did; you have to be prepared in case they come back,” explains the lieutenant. Andrii Dubovik, who exercises the functions of spokesperson. Dug underground, the shelters for Ukrainian soldiers have heating, television and even internet service. Among the foliage of the trees, they have built a cabin where they have tea, rest and take shelter when the temperatures “drop and the thermometer shows -20”, Dubovik points out. “Here we are fine,” he notes, Sergiy Bun, a soldier with a shaved head and worn teeth, despite being only in his thirties. And to certify the supposed goodness of the place, he stretches out on one of the bunk beds where he stands guard permanently along with his companions, counting on a only day off each two weeks.
Meetings with Belarus
The meetings that have been holding in the last few weeks Senior Kremlin officials with those responsible for Belarus, the country from which the Russian armored columns advanced a year ago and finally failed to close the pincer around Kiev, have given rise to the possibility that will open again the northern front, also taking into account that, according to official Russian rhetoric, Moscow has not renounced the initial goals of the invasionwhich are summarized in the control of the Ukrainian State and the fall of the Government of Volodimir Zelensky.
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However the Institute for War Studies (ISW) considers that such plans are still very green, particularly due to the reluctance of the president Belarusian, Alexander Lukashenkoto become more involved in the conflict. “President Lukashenko continues to counterbalance (to the Kremlin’s intentions) by insisting that Belarus is a sovereign state,” explains the ISW in a recent post. The possibility of a new attack could happen “towards the end of 2023”, concludes the institute.
While this is happening, the position men they fight boredom and stupidity, and they try to keep their fighting capacity intact by watching from above what happens down the hill, training to deploy in the trenches at full speed in the event that it finally occurs an alertand one of them, even showing his skill with the knifethrowing it into the surrounding trees, in a jiffy, and as if from a circus thrower it was treated “This is one resistance positionis not any Training place“clarifies Lieutenant Dubovik.